Wednesday, September 1, 2010

An Interview with Craig from Earth Cafe

Interviews are an awesome inspirations, i know this myself because after i read the interview on vegan hope on HappyHerbivores page and i felt like i could go the distance with being vegan. As new vegans we need to see that others (Many others) are vegan too and that it has changed their life in a very positive way. The interviews i will do here will be not of just great vegans or vegans in the cookbook biz but also plain every day vegans who have made a change in their life even in the life of others. Today i have ready for you guys the interview of Craig one of the partners for EARTHCAFETOGO.COM if you dont know this website check it out you will be mesmorized by all the delicious cakes they have. Which are all raw and vegan. He is their marketing representative. He is also the one who handels their twitter @earthcafe. Personally i love having him as a friend on twitter because he leaves the most empowering and insightful posts of all from tips on health to empowering quotes. He is a very nice polite man who is very funny and intelligent i hope all of you enjoy reading this interview and much as i have giving it.

The first must ask question " how long have you been vegan and what made you go plant base."?I became vegan some time during the spring of 2005 & there are a couple of reasons as to the 'why'. First, one of my partners, Candy, was a great influence as to what being vegan was all about. Both from an animal rights position & from a nutritional point of view. Even prior to becoming Vegan, I was never a big meat eater by any stretch. I ate mostly pastas. salads, veggies & such. But as a single dad converting over totally to being vegan was unfamiliar territory for me.

Becoming Vegan happened like this, while shopping w/my 3 kids, my oldest daughter turned to me and said out of the blue,"dad I think we should become vegan". And that is how it began. The timing was right because I was having some moral challenges being a partner in a vegan based company but not totally 100% vegan (EC in the summer of '04). So again, the timing was right. Candy was a huge help with meal preparation, education, support etc.

- I have to ask how did you jump from mortgage banking to raw vegan food marketing?Well like many things it just sort of happened. A rather long dull story cut short.... Candy (who in my opinion is one of the best raw chefs period. And I'm not just saying that at all. If you see the various foods on our website they're her creations & they all are of the same taste quality as our cheesecakes.) at the time she was a good friend of mine and had a great following in the raw food community in LA. Everyone enjoyed her raw food a ton especially her raw cheesecakes. I made the suggestion to her that she should approach a few stores to carry her raw treats. She asked if I could help, which I did. The orders actually came in right away and EC was created. I went full time into our biz in January 2008.

- Have you baked any of the good your company sells or have you tried to bake any of the goods?No, they would all melt..:)

- what goods other than the Famous cheesecake i hear so much about are in stock at earthcafetogo.com?Hmm, we keep talking about opening a restaurant at some point.

-Was it hard getting the younger children to become vegan ? It truly was shockingly easy. There was no complaining at all.

-What is your favorite cake or good from your business?Well, if I had to pick one - 'Who's Your Daddy'. I'll get hooked on another for awhile but I always come back to 'Daddy'.. ha, ha..:)

This is the "Who's your Daddy"

-Do you have a favorite raw food that you love to add to your dishes?I'd say either our 'Lovioli' our 'Raw Pizza', I like them both a lot, they're excellent (at least I think so). We only offer our cheesecakes in stores but if we do decide to open a cafe they would for sure be on the menu.

-Do you have any words of wisdom for new vegans ?Yes, get all of your friends on board & stay the course for all the right reasons..:). Obesity, & health related issues tied to being overweight, are out of control in our country & we need to educate everyone that there are better food choices out there. Not force it down their throats but share with them the benefits. Many people get turned off about 'vegan' just because they don't know better. With education & patience anything is possible....

-What does being vegan mean for you and how has it changed you life?to live a life free of animal products & be consciously aware about the exploitation of animals & our planet. The impact our negative actions have had on our planet are huge & I try to do my part to make things a little better. I would say this also holds true for my close vegan friends.

I actually found my can't wait to try cake of choice. I picked this one because well i LOVE Bananas !

I hope you guys have had fun reading this interview and learned alot about Craig. I hope you try some of their treats im sure you will enjoy them.

2 comments:

Great interview! I think it's important that we spread the vegan message to our friends and family in a caring non-confrotational way. Sharing w/others that being vegan doesn't mean "giving up" foods you love. You can still have cheesecake, pizza, nachos, hamburgers, sloppy joes....etc. The short answer as to what do vegans eat: "the same foods we've always loved, but now all plant based ingredients." :)